Open letter to the Presbyterian Church (USA) from an Iraqi Jew

Some of your members, under the banner of human rights, have demonized one country. According to them, the one country that destabilizes the Middle East and creates much pain and suffering to the Arab world, is not Iran, Syria, or Lebanon. It is Israel.

They believe the root of the problem is Zionism and the return of the Jews to Israel.

Your group has just published a booklet entitled “Zionism Unsettled”. The booklet claims that if it weren’t for the Zionist movement that established Israel, the Jews from Arab lands would still be living in peace and harmony among the Arab nations.

I quote from your from Page 48 of “Zionism Unsettled”:

“Middle eastern Jews, also called Mizrahi Jews, share a history of largely harmonious integration and acculturation in their host countries. Sadly, this model of coexistence was destabilized by the regional penetration of Zionism beginning in the late 19th century.”

My Arabic name is Yusuf. I was born in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Baghdad known as “Taht El Takia” in December of 1930. I am now 83 years old. My mother tongue is Arabic and I am one those Jews who was integrated in the Arabic Islamic culture of Iraq.

3 Responses

Dear Yusuf,
You write: ” My family is grateful to be citizens of the United States. We are happy to have escaped Iraq and none of us share your sadness or have nostalgia to go back and live as oppressed second-class citizens of any Muslim country.”
Praise the Lord! You ask:
“Imagine taking my wife, my three children (two Ph.Ds, and one MD) and five grandchildren to Baghdad. How crazy would I be? As American Jews and Zionists, how long do you think we would last before being killed?”
Don’t ask me! Ask your grandchildren! Did they serve in Iraq?
Zionism Unsettled, 46:
Burge examines five problematic theological convictions of evangelical Christians. First, he questions the evangelical claim that God’s promises of land to Abraham are valid today…. Second, evangelicals believe that biblical prophecy has been fulfilled by … the establishment of the state of Israel… Third, … any criticism of the state of Israel is antisemitic…. A fourth evangelical belef is that history is coming to a close … (and that) the second coming is contingent upon the fulfillment of God’s promise…. Evangelicals like Burge believe that Christ has already come.

At 2 Timothy 4:3-4 it says: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (NIV -1984)
Since people in leadership within the PCUSA have chosen to blatantly corrupt the teaching of Scripture, blatantly ordain those openly living – and advocating for others to support their lifestyle – against the Christian Faith to lead the PCUSA, and blatantly betray the Reformed Faith nothing should surprise us.

This stance posted by PCUSA members certainly does not represent all of its members. It either represents gross ignorance of Scripture or a departure from Scripture so great as to make it almost impossible to believe. Yet I have seen it with my own eyes. What action would Jesus recommend?